Melavir Sauin Dragon released Ultima IV Rebirth — a Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition-based remake of Ultima 4 that built atop work done to patch and update an earlier remake, Ultima IV Reborn — a few years ago, and has made occasional updates to it since then. He recently (read: last month) released what will be his last update to the module, version 2.3.0. Change notes for its release describe many tweaks and updates, both minor and significant:

^ All conversations have been updated regarding their organization, expanded dialogue and commentary, language corrections

^ Bonus section for successfully completing the proper endgame, based off the CORE remake for “Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash,” which was named “The Sosarian Paradox”

^ Companions will recognize that they’ve been with the party after they join and will allow you to ask them back, even if you don’t talk to them after welcoming them into the fold for the first time

^ Mariah’s response to guarding her chest is fixed while joined

^ Scatu’s Mystic Armour journal entry appears when it should

^ XP is now given for Body, Mind and Soul side quest when complete

^ Gimble now has a separate response for a blue potion

^ Starlight’s darkness now covers the entire SE island of Buccaneer’s Den

^ Removed music from Cove — North Cave

^ Lowered several placeables that were hanging in mid-air

^ ALL owned treasure will now give their intended karma hits!

^ Closed off an open section in the NE corner of the Great Stygian Abyss — Level 1

^ Provided a magical means of leaving Dungeon Covetous, close to the altar

^ Removed a duplicate set of stairs from Dungeon Covetous — Level 5

^ Changed darkness to blindness in Dungeon Covetous — Level 4, and the Chamber of Virtue

^ Father Antos’ conversation about an Encyclopedia Britannia will now logically proceed whether you find the exotic reagents Mandrake Root and Nightshade before or after speaking with him

^ Journal entries for Nightshade now correspond whether you’ve spoken to Presto or not

^ Sister Antos’s line of coversation about the Bell of Courage will no longer repeat if you tell her you don’t have the item. I also fixed the item tag in that line of questioning so that your response will have the proper karma gain or hit.

^ Corrected Lady Tessa’s line of conversation about the Mystic Weapon so that she doesn’t repeat it.

^ Fixed the 5 and 10 duplication process for the Y-Up spell so that they no longer create a single spell, and should now use up the corresponding number of reagents as well.

^ Added an option for completing Sheila’s side quest if you misplace or sell the gemstones found after destroying the Relic of Exodus

^ Instead of Cromwell just giving you the Mantra of Honesty, this quest was expanded –slightly– to include a necessary conversation with the local gypsy, Inoo.

^ Based on The Crypts from Ultima VI, the Catacombs are a new series of areas that connect the barrow beneath Moonglow to Dungeon Deceit, which should help players leave that section of Britannia should they find themselves stuck at the dungeon entrance

However, Dead Tom Dragon noticed just recently that the module now apparently starts the player off on Buccaneer’s Den. In response to this, one Bliznik stepped up to release an unofficial patch, dubbed version 2.3.1:

Since Melavir stopped working on this module, I’ve decided to pick it up and fix a glaring issue with v. 2.3.0 f which he uploaded just before he went offline. Unfortuately, the latest version of the module starts the character in a store in Bucaneer’s Den. I assume Melavir was bug-fixing something at Bucaneer’s Den, and just plum forgot to reset the start point of the game to Earth. I’ve fixed this issue, and a couple of other minor issues.

I plan to run slowly run through this module over the next few months to fix any other glaring issues I see, and if I have time I’ll run through to fix/improve minor issues, like combat or how your chosen Virtue is communicated through the game.

Fixes (v. 2.3.1)

– Moved start point back to Earth – Homestead

– Created Ankh Amulet warable item to replace unwearable Ankh Amulet

– Edited text for items to correct typographical errors and to clarify description

The whole Rebirth/Reborn saga is one of the more fascinating stories in the Ultima fan project scene, given how many times development has changed hands, each new developer improving on what was done before. Much of this is enabled by the extraordinary design and user-friendliness of the Neverwinter Nights toolkit, but it’s great to see different community members step up to take over when another developer has to let the project go.

At any rate, you can grab the version 2.3.0 release and version 2.3.1 patch at Neverwinter Vault, or you can find all of them in the Rebirth project entry right here at the Codex.